Video captured by a U.S. Air Force Predator drone shows the last convoy of U.S. soldiers to cross the border out of Iraq, completing the withdrawal after nearly nine years of war

Video captured by a U.S. Air Force Predator drone shows the last convoy of U.S. soldiers to cross the border out of Iraq, completing the withdrawal after nearly nine years of war.

The final column of around 100 mostly U.S. military MRAP armored vehicles carrying 500 U.S. troops trundled across the southern Iraq desert through the night on Dec. 18 along an empty highway to the Kuwaiti border, ending the military intervention that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. [np-related]

The war, launched in March 2003 with missiles striking Baghdad to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, leaves behind a fragile democracy still facing insurgents, sectarian tensions and a struggle to define its place in the Arab region.